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Bug 79223 - arrow keys to open folder
arrow keys to open folder
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Product: nautilus
Classification: Core
Component: Keyboardability
unspecified
Other Linux
: Normal minor
: future
Assigned To: Nautilus Maintainers
Nautilus Maintainers
Depends on: 80529
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2002-04-19 13:01 UTC by Murray Cumming
Modified: 2004-12-22 21:47 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: ---



Description Murray Cumming 2002-04-19 13:01:07 UTC
Like the mac, alt-down should open the folder. It is then easier to
navigate to a folder using the cursor keys and then open it without taking
your right-hand off the cursor keys (as required by [ctrl]-o at the
moment). It's also less keys to press.

We need to use [alt] for this because [ctrl]-arrows moves the focus in GTK+
(I think - it might be a WM thing). I have no idea what the point of that is.
Comment 1 Gregory Merchan 2002-04-19 14:49:32 UTC
(Back reference)

Bug report #79150 is related to this.

I don't know why Ctrl+Arrow moves focus in gtk either. Calum?
Comment 2 Tuomas Kuosmanen 2002-04-19 15:19:34 UTC
I think this is a good idea. I very much enjoy the cmd-up / cmd-down
in Macos. We probably could also make alt-up to go "up". This would be
very straightforward for "open in current window" -setting. Just make
"alt-down" an alias to "ctrl-o" and "alt-up" alias to "ctrl-u".

What I would like in addition would be that with "open in separate
windows" setting, alt-up would open the "parent folder" as well -
meaning it would either focus and raise it if it is open, or open it
in a new window if it is not open already. This is very useful on macos.

Too bad Ctrl is taken for gtk focus navigation, I might personally
have preferred to swap these around, but using alt is reasonable too. 

Comment 3 Tuomas Kuosmanen 2002-04-19 15:20:26 UTC
I think this is a good idea. I very much enjoy the cmd-up / cmd-down
in Macos. We probably could also make alt-up to go "up". This would be
very straightforward for "open in current window" -setting. Just make
"alt-down" an alias to "ctrl-o" and "alt-up" alias to "ctrl-u".

What I would like in addition would be that with "open in separate
windows" setting, alt-up would open the "parent folder" as well -
meaning it would either focus and raise it if it is open, or open it
in a new window if it is not open already. This is very useful on macos.

Too bad Ctrl is taken for gtk focus navigation, I might personally
have preferred to swap these around, but using alt is reasonable too. 
Comment 4 Tuomas Kuosmanen 2002-04-19 15:23:18 UTC
lovely of bugzilla to "throw away my changes" and there they are in
double.. :-)
Comment 5 Gregory Merchan 2002-04-19 15:32:06 UTC
Hey, what's with removing the CC list? ;-)

I just remembered that Netscape set a precedent for using
Alt+[Left|Right] as back and forward.

I guess I need to find something else to raise/lower windows, again.
(Not really complaining, just noting.)
Comment 6 Murray Cumming 2002-04-19 15:41:03 UTC
So, contrary to my original comment, it's ctrl-down, not alt-down that
does this on the map. tigert confused me. I still _think_ that it's
alt-dbl-click on the Mac that does the same thing with the mouse, so
if we use alt for both then we'd actually be more consistent than the mac.
Comment 7 Murray Cumming 2002-04-19 15:41:30 UTC
s/does this on the map/does this on the Mac/
Comment 8 Murray Cumming 2002-04-19 15:44:14 UTC
It also sounds like the Mac _always_ opens in the same window when
using the keyboard to open the folder. And I think this is what tigert
wants. However, I think it should just do whatever the mouse would do.
That would be simpler.
Comment 9 Gregory Merchan 2002-04-19 16:18:12 UTC
Maybe there's some confusion here because of the views?
I think the tree view and the icon view on the Mac have different
keybindings.

The Warp3 tree view, which displays only folders (afaict),
uses '+' and '-' to open nodes; that's the only way you
would have things opening in the same window.

When things are opening in the same window, you lose the saved
position of objects; either at that instant or at a later one.

(Another confusing thing is that Mac keys don't map 1:1 to PC keys.)
Comment 10 Murray Cumming 2002-04-19 16:35:23 UTC
I'm talking about the main right-hand-side icon/list view. At the
moment I am ignoring the TreeView in the left-hand sidebar. I can't
even look at that now because it doesn't exist in my cvs nautilus2.
What makes you think that there is confusion due to the existence of
the 2 views.

I think we're on safe ground if we map the Mac's Option/alt to Alt,
and Command to Ctrl.
Comment 11 Gregory Merchan 2002-04-19 18:45:26 UTC
I meant the tree views as I recall from Mac Finder and as in Warp3,
not the side-panel of Nautilus. Both of these are first-class views
and not relegated to a side-panel. (I don't think either of those
has side panels.)

Some Macs (all?) also have a Control key and that's not the same, afaik,
as the PC Control key.

Murray said, "tigert confused me." Comparing two systems with
different types of views and keys can be confusing, so I wouldn't
blame tigert.  ;-)

I understand the keybindings in the Finder tree are different from
those in the icon folder views, though I haven't confirmed it myself.
If one person were speaking of an icon view in Nautilus and the
other of a tree view in Mac Finder, that might be confusing to compare.
Comment 12 Murray Cumming 2002-05-02 02:49:52 UTC
Alex has implemented this, but it is still blocked by the default
Sawfish2 bindings. See #80529.
Comment 13 Luis Villa 2002-05-09 05:07:05 UTC
If it is code-implemented in nautilus and works in metacity then this
should be closed.
Comment 14 Murray Cumming 2002-05-09 10:36:04 UTC
I don't know about metacity - I don't use it. While this is
technically no longer a Nautilus bug, until our window managers are
fixed it remains a GNOME2 bug.